Joseph Johnston
University of Michigan
M.Arch - Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning Portfolio
Post Rock Research Initiative
Research Specialist
With Post Rock, I gained experience with the prototyping process, from grant writing to fabricating a novel rain-screen facade system. I was responsible for fabricating an end effector oven mounted on a Kuka KR-120 robot arm for rotational molding recycled plastic into facade panels which involved testing various polymers that react differently to different mixtures, temperatures, cycle times, and grinding methods, resulting in advantages and disadvantages in surface pattern control, panel warping, homogeneity, durability, and fire resistance. I developed a toolpath using Kuka PRC for the Grasshopper Rhino plug-in, troubleshot errors while operating the robot arm during the rotational molding process.
Once the panels were created, I designed and built a full-scale rain-screen facade prototype wall system using the recycled plastic panels that is currently exhibited at Craft Contemporary Museum in Los Angeles before it will undergo NFPA-285 testing in January 2025.
Project Leads: Meredith Miller, Thom Moran, Chris Humphrey
Post Rock Oven Fabrication +
Robotic Rotational Molding Video
Post Rock Mock Up Wall
panel id: 240822-1
Polymer type: PP/PE Mixture
Date: 08/22/2024
Temp: 400 degrees
Volume: 6.5 L
Runtime: 3 hrs 25 min
panel id: 240821-1
Polymer type: PP/PE Mixture
Date: 08/21/2024
Temp: 400 degrees
Volume: 6.5 L
Runtime: 3 hrs 25 min
panel id: 240724-2
Polymer type: PE
Date: 07/24/2024
Temp: 400 degrees
Volume: 6 L
Runtime: 2 hrs 40 min
Arctic Symbiosis
F22: Institutions Studio
Professor: Perry Kulper
Arctic Symbiosis proposes an architecture that guides sustainable arctic development and engages with the surrounding area via speculative geoengineering interventions that promote a symbiotic relationship with climate change mitigation and preservation of indigenous life and culture. The embassy is situated on an iceberg that circulates in the currents in Baffin Bay and Davis Strait where the “iceberg alley” is located.
The design acts as a large miniature example of the larger climate processes that are addressed in the project. Icebergs are harvested at one end and melted down into a large pit where the water is sprayed on the iceberg site to rebuild the ice on top as it melts from the bottom. The structure is attached to a cable network that moves up as ice is rebuilt underneath it reflecting the instability of the arctic affected by climate change.
Methanotroph Deployment
Sea Ice Rebuilding
Caribou Migration
METHANOTROPH DROIDS SEA ICE REBUILDERS
The methanotroph intervention is located throughout the Nunavut territory in permafrost abrupt thaw zones with concentrated lakes that seep millions of tons of methane into the atmosphere each year. These droids pair up with a home base that reproduces methanotroph bacteria to be deployed at the surrounding abrupt thaw lakes where the bacteria will feed on the methane before it reaches the atmosphere.
The sea ice rebuilder intervention is strategically located in areas of importance to the inuit way of life to strengthen the ice and prolong the melting period in areas of caribou migration and trade routes while simultaneously increasing the albedo effect of the area. Climate change has caused sea ice to melt faster, which is shifting caribou migration paths and causing food shortages among the inuit who heavily rely on subsistence hunting for food (56% of inuit households experience food insecurity).
Embassy of the Arctic 8 +
Drawing on the left shows the temporality of the iceberg embassy. The 8 pods represent the 8 nations that are claiming territory in the Arctic 8 and controlling development. The left section is an iceberg harvester, collecting stray icebergs that contribute to sea level rise and brings them inside to be broken up. The middle section contains a large water storage basin surrounded by a large sun magnification apparatus to help melt the icebergs that are brought in. The system then sprays the water onto intself to keep it from melting and onto the arctic ice sheet to build the ice layer and prolong melting. The middle section also contains a half dome structure that serves as the conference meeting room for the Arctic 8 to discuss the future of the arctic hovering over the basin that is acting as a miniature representation of climate change
SkyCap Passive Direct Air Capture
Research Paper
Project Partner: Katie Bailey
Abstract:
According to the IPCC, at least 100 billion tons of CO2 needs to be removed from the atmosphere via carbon capture technologies by 2100. The Orca, pioneered by Climeworks in 2021, is the first large-scale DAC plant, capturing 4,000 tons of CO2 per year. To reach their goal of removing 1% of the 33 billion tons of CO2 emitted annually, Climeworks would have to construct 82,500 Orcas. DAC companies aren’t yet positioned to reach these scalability goals, partially due to the site preference of remote areas near renewable energy sources.
To address these challenges of scaling up, our design research project takes the current filter and applies it within the urban context, calculating the potential of funneling high-speed passive wind in skyscraper blow throughs and at the top of tall buildings into these DAC filters. Our analysis examines the efficacy of replacing an active fan system, which reduces cost and CO2 emissions from the operational energy, creating a higher ease of scalability and efficiency. By mapping out various methods of how the CO2 can be sequestered locally in each region of the US, it reveals how this technology can be scaled to make a significant impact. We believe our proposal can contribute to the culture of sustainability that cities are striving to create and influence the way buildings are designed and utilized. A cityscape retrofitted to breathe in CO2 through this decentralized, passive approach embraces this technology in an alternative way, changing how people relate to it.
Red highlights show buildings tall enough to capture a significant amount of CO2
Collection zones are based on clusters of tall buildings and underground networks These mark potential carbon storage and utilization opportunities in Manhattan.
SunLeaf Systems +
Fabricated Ceramic Assemblies
Professor: Chris Humphrey
Project Partners: Olaf Sunleaf and Jutang Gao
This project aims to simultaneously accomplish performance and aesthetic goals for a ceramic rainscreen facade system. A leaf-like design was created with grasshopper that has different aperture levels that can increase and reduce the amount of shading on a building.
The system works as a gradient and will have larger apertures in window areas to let in natural light in the building and smaller or no apertures in other areas of the building in order to cool the building depending on the location of the building.
3-D Printing
CNC Waterjet
CNC routing
LADYBUG TOOLS SUNHOUR ANALYSIS
clay tile slumping
carving clay tile video
Profiling clay tile video
Self-Sufficient Community +
W23: Institutions Studio
Professors: Kathy Velikov and Jonathan Rule
Partners: Mack Journell and Gabriel Maisonet-Santiago
The goal of this project is to create a self-sufficient, resilient community in rural Port Austin, MI using regenerative farming techniques, waste-to-resource strategy, and renewable energy technologies. In the current climate crisis, rural Michigan is projected to become a destination for climate refugees. The buildings located in the site create density in a way that limits the impact to the surrounding forest and wildlife corridor located just outside of the site, while making room for farming and recreation that takes place on site. The buildings are constructed with CLT and Glulam, lowering the embodied carbon and aesthetically situating them within rural Port Austin. They also employ passive design strategies like the use of nearby deciduous trees, facade shading system, and vertical farm cross ventilation integration utilizing stack effect to lower its overall energy consumption. Active systems are supported by photovoltaic panels and geothermal heat that is all located on site. Vertical farms and greenhouses integrated in the buildings and outdoor farmland combine to produce enough food to support a population of 120 people that can live on site.
Section Perspective Detail shows the construction details of the mass timber project. The view shows the potential of the vertical farm core that acts as a fresh produce pantry and as a ventilation method using the stack effect. The wind is brought in through mechanical windows on the balcony, traveling through the apartment with the warm air escaping through the vertical farm core with perforated metal floors rising to the greenhouse on the roof due to stack effect.
Section
Elevation
Exploded Axon Section
people, and produces biogas that could be used to power 1300 homes. The map to the right shows a plan to scale up this anaerobic digester for the entire city of Boston. The map creates a logistical plan for waste pickup, transportation, and processing throughout metro Boston.
The project then looks at the potential of the utilization of the byproducts of anaerobic digestion like solid digestate that could be used as fertilizer for vertical farms and as a substrate for growing mycelium, and the ureaproducing bacteria that can be combined with rammed earth and concrete as a biocementation agent, potentially eliminating the need for portland cement in rammed-earth and concrete.
Using the site of Franklin Park, these processes all work together to make visible a waste-to-resource circular process of composting and anaerobic digestion while working simultaneously to improve the accessibility and cultural expression of underserved communities in the surrounding neighborghoods.
MYCELIUM EXPERIMENTS
I worked with Dr. Sibel Uludag-Demirer (Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, Michigan State University) and was able to get a tour of MSU’s Anaerobic Digestion Research and Education Center where I learned more about the anaerobic digestion process and was able to get samples of biosolid digestate. I experimented with using the biosolid digestate as a substrate for mycelium growth that grew a full mycelial network in under a week. I’d like to continue research on the solid digestate as a biocementation agent in rammed earth and concrete.
Elma Lewis Amphitheatre
Biocemented rammed earth is used to construct the shell structure for the ampitheatre. The ampitheatre is a direct response from community engagement efforts of Franklin Park 2030, where locals wished the park had a music venue named after Elma Lewis that can help represent the cultures and celebrations of the majorly underserved communities around Franklin Park. The ampitheatre sits in the middle of the original Frederick Olmstead designed promenade that was removed to make room for the zoo that monetized and decreased the accessibility of the park.
Food Truck Course
The golf course bisected the park, making a large portion inaccessible unless you are able to pay the greens fees. The course will instead host a variety of food trucks that represent the many different cultures found in the neighborhoods surrounding the park. Each “green” will have different traditional food trucks and yard games. The Olmstead planting pattern is used in the “fairways” to reintroduce native species, reducing the usage of fertilizer that was being drained into Scarboro Pond. Food is sourced from vertical farms in Franklin Park and all organic waste is fed into the anaerobic digester, creating a circular food system.
3D Printed Biocemented Emergency Housing
The biocemented rammed earth is used in a 3D printing application where the robot prints temporary dome structures that can house people on demand in response to displacement caused by future flood events increased from climate change. The biocemented rammed earth using solid digestate allows for the potential of a zero waste lowcost building material.
Oyster Shellters: Biophilic Seawalls
Professors: Tsz Yn Ng and Wes McGee
Project Partner: Yunyang Ma
Our proposal looks to design a modular, interlocking seawall that can reduce some of the negative environmental impacts that seawalls have on marine ecosystems. The lifespan of concrete is typically 40-50 years. The need for replacement typically stems from the corrosion of the steel reinforcements from within the concrete. The modular units of the wall geometrically interlock to be easily assembled and disassembled and to eliminate the need for steel reinforcements and grout. The modularity allows for future additions to be made to accommodate rising sea levels and provides biophilic design opportunities to enable the increase of biodiversity at the hard coastline.
The seawall is designed in two main parts: the main structural back wall, and the biophillic units stepped wall. The stepped wall is designed according to the intertidal zone of the area. The modularity of this seawall design allows it to be added on to meet sealevel rise demands without having to tear down and rebuild the seawall.
InterlockingUnits
BiophillicUnits
Reusable Mold Making +
Exploded Mold Pieces
Robotic Hot Wire Cutting
Unit 1 Mold Assembly`
Unit 2 Mold Assembly`
Getting Messy
Complete Mold for Casting Concrete
Fabrication
Metal Works
Metals Lab Director: Mick Kennedy
Beginning in a metalworking class led by Mick Kennedy, I began working with metals for the first time. In the course, we learned the basics of MIG and TIG welding, brazing, grinding, cutting, sandblasting, and powdercoating metals. The course had us build a few objects for a final review. My friend Mack and I decided after the course to take what we have learned and create some tables, bookends, and bottle openers to sell at the Ann Arbor Artisan Market, shown below. We named our “business”: Mackio + Joeycats.
Fabrication
Making
Associated
Professors: Jonathan Rule, Kathy Velikov, El Hadi Jazairy, and Adam Miller Model
Fabrication
LiO (Lighting Object)
This lighting object is designed in the theme of electromagnetism using a point charge design scored into the PETG shade. The shade was crated using a 3D printed mold that was created with a tensile stength Kangaroo script so that the nodes of the point charge script jut out towards the user. The metal rods poke through the nodes of the PETG shade and are wired to the CPB and coded with a capacitive touch code to respond with different lighting effects to human touch. Each of the four rods are coded to have different lighting effects when touched.
Working with mycelium involves some work growing and propagating the mushrooms, and a lot more work building a sufficient mold for them to thrive and give the potential of a strong bond. `
I was interested in the potential mycelium has to grow using a substrate of organic waste. After acquiring some Vermicompost and some biodigestate from Michigan State University, I successfully grew mycelium in under a week using these waste substrates. I then made a lamp and a table using CNC routing foam and wood for complex moldwork.
LiO Testing
Mycelium
Myco Lamp
Myco Table